[AmB3r]

How do the Audio Technica ATH-M50 or Denon AH-D2000's compare in this category?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The M50s are a very well balanced headphone for gaming. Great bass impact, positioning, and overall sound, but they have a VERY tiny soundstage. For a pair of headphones that are cheaper and are better suited for gaming, the Creative Aurvana Live does gaming better.

 

[nonsupremous]

I use the D2000 for gaming the most.  They have a much bigger soundstage than the M50 and the bass is huge.  Surround effects sound very good in them.  ANd they are very comfortable so you can play for a long time in comfort.
 
Quote:

How do the Audio Technica ATH-M50 or Denon AH-D2000's compare in this category?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I wish I could try the D2000 out for gaming. Loving the CAL so far for gaming, and since they're practically D1001, I have high hopes for the D2000 as gaming cans.

 

[AmB3r]

Very difficult decisions to make, as I'll be using the cans for gaming and music quite a lot.
 
Already sold off my Roccat's and getting an ASUS Xonar STX, jsut need to figure out which cans to get.

 

[nosaj03]

Ive been toying around with my recently acquired RX900s and I have to say they have a lot of potential. With a little modding and work I think they actually may outshine my AD700s. We shall see....

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

As good as the M50s are, I wouldn't give them too much use for gaming. I've had much better gaming headphones for less (Creative Aurvana Live), which are pretty comparable to the M50s for music too.
 
Considering that the CAL is a rebadged D1001 give or take a few things, and the D2000 is considered superior to the D1001, I'd gamble on the D2000 being a better performer for gaming than the M50, and better for music too. Just a theory. That being said, the M50s are sweeeeeet.

 

[wmf]

I can certainly vouch for both the AT A900ti and the DT990s for gaming ....   very nice.  

 
i still would like to try some Denons and the DT770/DT880s at some stage.
 
 
 

 

 

[jesyjames]

Can anyone tell me what the best settings are for a Xonar Essence STX for Dolby Headphone and games?  I'm a little confused about bit rates.  I think I read somewhere where you want to set something to 48khz.  Also, I seem to be getting conflicting info as to what the speaker settings should be.  The manual states for games set it to 8 channel with dolby headphone, but I have read elsewhere you want to set everything to 2 channel. 
 
So, I guess what I am asking is... what should Windows 7 speaker settings be set at, what should the Essence control panel be set at, and what in game speaker setting should I use? 
 
 
For example-- In the thread linked below there are different opinions and in this thread here they seem to be different.  It is my understanding that you want everything to be set to 5.1 (or 7.1) and then the Dolby Headphone technology simulates those speakers in the headphone.  Where as if you set everything to 2 channel, it would be expanding those 2 channels to virtual speakers via the headphone technology.
 
http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/749717-what-speaker-setup-should-i-set.html

 

[BlutoSlice]

 
 
DX control panel : I have 8 channel source and output to 2 channel or Headphone to allow dobly headphone and in game (Bad company 2) I set it to home cinema which I assume is for multi channel surround.  My reasoning is that the xonar is downmixing 5.1 into stereo and then dolby HP is then enhancing the stereo sound with 3D positioning. I am now curious to see what setting 2 chanel across the board sounds like with DH on.
 

 

[Mochan]

I've a friend who swears by the D1001 and says they're better than the D2000 and up. D1001 is more balanced and neutral whereas the D2000 and upper series have recessed mids and heavy bass. I'm thinking the D1001 is better for gaming from a competitive and detail-oriented sense.
 
 
I also agree on the M50. It would have been a great gaming headphone if not for its tiny soundstage. Imaging, bass, etc. it does these quite well but the small soundstage kind of limits you. But if you just need to know where sounds come from they do quite well.
 
 
Regarding channels, here's the rule.
 
If you have a 2-channel system like headphones or stereo speakers, set your soundcard to 2 channel out put. Do NOT put it to 5.1 or 7.1, you will only get the front L and R channels and lose all the other channels.  If you have a 5.1 set, set it to 5.1, if you have a 7.1 set, set it to 7.1, etc.
 
Always set your soundcard outputs to match your output device. 
 
You can apply whatever processing effects you want and the soundcard will do the rest, just make sure the outputs match. Personally I turn off DH whenever I play on speakers. 
 
I don't game on Win7 but I'm guess you should set it to whatever setting you have in your soundcard.
 
In game settings you should set it to match what you are using as well. Some people say set it to 5.1 etc. but this redirects sound to other channels that don't exist. If you'reusing headphones set it to Headphones, the game will downmix the 5.1 or 7.1 sounds into a stereo output which has all the data, and then turn on DH and DH will take care of making it seem like the rear sounds come from the rear. 
 

 

[jesyjames]

 
Quote:

I've a friend who swears by the D1001 and says they're better than the D2000 and up. D1001 is more balanced and neutral whereas the D2000 and upper series have recessed mids and heavy bass. I'm thinking the D1001 is better for gaming from a competitive and detail-oriented sense.
 
 
I also agree on the M50. It would have been a great gaming headphone if not for its tiny soundstage. Imaging, bass, etc. it does these quite well but the small soundstage kind of limits you. But if you just need to know where sounds come from they do quite well.
 
 
Regarding channels, here's the rule.
 
If you have a 2-channel system like headphones or stereo speakers, set your soundcard to 2 channel out put. Do NOT put it to 5.1 or 7.1, you will only get the front L and R channels and lose all the other channels.  If you have a 5.1 set, set it to 5.1, if you have a 7.1 set, set it to 7.1, etc.
 
Always set your soundcard outputs to match your output device. 
 
You can apply whatever processing effects you want and the soundcard will do the rest, just make sure the outputs match. Personally I turn off DH whenever I play on speakers. 
 
I don't game on Win7 but I'm guess you should set it to whatever setting you have in your soundcard.
 
In game settings you should set it to match what you are using as well. Some people say set it to 5.1 etc. but this redirects sound to other channels that don't exist. If you'reusing headphones set it to Headphones, the game will downmix the 5.1 or 7.1 sounds into a stereo output which has all the data, and then turn on DH and DH will take care of making it seem like the rear sounds come from the rear. 
 

 
I appreciate the feedback.  I was reading in the Xonar STX manual and they say for games set it to 8 channels.  I came across this quote and it makes sense to me:  "Dolby Headphone does not by itself simulate 5.1 channels. It just virtualizes however many channels there are. So for stereo sources, it will virtualize two speakers, and for 5.1 content, it will virtualize all."
 
Just to make sure nothing was being lost by setting the card to more channels than 2, I loaded up Modern Warfare 2 and set the game to 5.1.  I matched the Xonar STX to that.  And windows 7 to that.  I then enabled Dolby Headphone in the control panel.  I explicitly created situations where sounds would be behind me and they were represented.  As far as I could tell nothing was being lost at all. 
 
After some light testing I've come to this conclusion:  There's not a ton of difference anyway.  I might just prefer straight stereo with no virtualization at all. 

 

[BlutoSlice]

 
Quote:

Regarding channels, here's the rule.
 
If you have a 2-channel system like headphones or stereo speakers, set your soundcard to 2 channel out put. Do NOT put it to 5.1 or 7.1, you will only get the front L and R channels and lose all the other channels.  If you have a 5.1 set, set it to 5.1, if you have a 7.1 set, set it to 7.1, etc.
 
Always set your soundcard outputs to match your output device. 
 
.

 
I dont agree and am pretty sure my Xonar downmixes the 6 chanels into 2 so nothing is lost. . It all depends on the game settings , will the game do a better job with the mix if set to stereo or will the soundcard downmix be superior.  I currently think the latter although I am open to be proven wrong. I might have to resurect some old FPS's from the collection and have some fun while testing.
 
Does anyone know of a free decent surround test tool to prove this.

 

[Mochan]

Hmm, well I haven't tried the Xonar so maybe the Xonar works different. This is my experience with a bunch of other sound cards from Auzentech and Creative, I guess Asus does things different.
 
I'm surprised you don't hear much diff jesy between stereo and virtualized, well DH never gave me good results in virtualization like CMSS-HP. CMSS HP virtualization is very different though and is a huge step up in terms of how the sounds are represented.

 

[Audioholic]

Quote:

Hmm, well I haven't tried the Xonar so maybe the Xonar works different. This is my experience with a bunch of other sound cards from Auzentech and Creative, I guess Asus does things different.
 
I'm surprised you don't hear much diff jesy between stereo and virtualized, well DH never gave me good results in virtualization like CMSS-HP. CMSS HP virtualization is very different though and is a huge step up in terms of how the sounds are represented.

I wouldn't agreee on that. I had X-fi Titanium Fatality Pro which is Creative's flagship and I tried the CMSS so many times with different headphones with every possible settings and the sound was so messed up and wrong that for a long time i thought that my card is somehow broken( but it wasn't). When I got my hands on STX and DH i remember my reaction was: for once I was blind, but now I can see!!